Romney Wins The War, Again

But as far as changing votes, 24% said they were more inclined to vote for Obama, 25% for Romney.

On the question of who was qualified to be Commander in Chief: 60% said Romney was.

63% said Obama was.

PPP did a poll. It had Obama winning.

But here's the unkindest cut, from @DKElections (Daily Kos Elections). I've changed the tweet a little to make it more readable.

Weird: Among indies in @PPPPolls, 47% say they're more likely to vote for Romney, 35% less; 32% say they're more likely to vote for Obama, 48% less. But indies thought O won debate 55-40, voting for him 46-36

Not weird. Romney's strategy was correct. He gained some ground. Even though the "independents" skewed strongly to Obama.

Obama's whole campaign -- and his debate strategy -- has been to "win the newscycle" and lob a bunch of small-bore attacks and micro-appeals. He keeps doing that and doing that.

I've been saying this for a while: You can win every newscycle and still lose. Because people don't vote on whatever dumb story you pushed into the newscycle. They're voting the the future, and the country, and their children.

In a debate about who should be commander-in-chief, Mitt Romney was just as much in command as the man in the job now.

...

But Romney also had a strong debate, in pursuing different goals than the president. He sought to come across as reasonable rather than confrontational — a candidate comfortable with the campaign’s trajectory.

“Attacking me is not talking about an agenda,” Romney said at one point.

Perhaps oddly for a challenger, Romney singled out areas of agreement with the president — on Egypt, Syria, the use of drone strikes — and then used disagreements to stitch together an argument that looked forward.

...

But Romney had already shown voters that he belongs on the stage with the president. Coming into the debate, he’d fought himself into a virtual tie with the president on key issue areas, according to the new ABC News/Washington Post poll, with little daylight between the two men on trust in handling terrorism, international affairs, or serving as commander-in-chief.

...

There’s no going back, though, to a point where a single debate could change the trajectory of a campaign. Nothing happened tonight to change the race’s direction — and Romney walks away strong after playing on Obama’s turf, competing for his job.